Yojiro Terada

Yojiro Terada
NationalityJapan Japanese
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1974, 1981–2008
TeamsMazda Automotive, Mazdaspeed, Lotus Sport, Team Artnature, T.D.R., Courage Compétition, Autoexe, Welter Racing, Binnie Motorsports, T2M Motorsport, Terramos
Best finish7th (1995)
Class wins4 (1983, 1988, 1990, 1996)
Yojiro Terada driving the T2M Motorsport Dome-Mader during the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Yojiro Terada (寺田陽次郎, Terada Yōjirō, born 26 March 1947) is a Japanese former racing driver from Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. He is known for holding the record for the second most participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans without an overall win (behind Bob Wollek), having run on 29 occasions (28 of which were consecutive) since 1974. He is also third behind Henri Pescarolo and Bob Wollek for the drivers with the most participations.[1] He scored class victories at the event in 1983, 1988, 1990 and 1996, while his best overall finish was seventh in 1995.

He began his racing career in a Honda S600[2] in 1969, before he was taken on as Mazda's factory driver, a position he held through the 1990s including participating in the World Sportscar Championship and All Japan Sports Prototype Championship.[citation needed]

He also took class wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona on two occasions, including in the Mazda RX-7's debut race in 1979, scoring a GTU class win at fifth place overall.[3] The other occasion was a fourth place overall finish and a GTO class win in 1982.[4]

When he is not racing, he runs the Tokyo-based AutoExe (オートエクゼ) tuning business, specialising in tuning parts and accessories for Mazda.[5][6] and instructs on driving at NATS (Nihon Automobile High Technical School) [7]

He is the father of voice actress Haruhi Nanao.[citation needed]

  1. ^ "The Most Regular Competitors". Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
  2. ^ 寺田陽次郎公式ウェブサイト » 寺田陽次郎について Archived October 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ World Sports Racing Prototypes – IMSA 1979 Archived September 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ World Sports Racing Prototypes – IMSA 1982 Archived October 24, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ (in Japanese) Welcome AutoExe Page Archived November 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Mazda Roadster by Autoexe, HDTV : Nihon Car .com". Archived from the original on 17 September 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2007. Nihon Car.com:Mazda Roadster by Autoexe, HDTV
  7. ^ (in Japanese) 学園の10大ポイント Archived November 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine